Shite that disappointed you

[Junkman]

The antidote to Dugong's thread.

This is about cars that somehow fell short of your expectations, despite they are hyped as brilliant by the motoring public, or the press.

 

I have to say, this holds true for me for most of the German chod I owned.

They usually had the ambience of a porta toilet, had no handling, not nearways the performance I would have expected from what I read on paper,

no suspension, seats as comfy as Hitler's WW1 field bed must have been and they broke down a lot causing repair bills that would easily be the

downpayment on a house in England.

[warren t claim]

Capri 2.8i.

 

Land Rover 110 V8.

[oman5]

Bmw 320i (1988)

Mondeo 2.0 (1995)

Granada twin cam auto

[messerschmitt owner]

BMW 320 four pot shark nose - in giffermatic mode - my dad's X2 GS left it standing every time!

[fordperv]

Capri 2.8i.

 

I have to agree, they are that hyped up by the great unwashed, to be hairy knuckled cars that ate kittens for fun, when in reality they fail to be as lairy as a breathed over pinto. Quite disappointing really.

[HMC]

Partly a case of shite I could have bought a better example of was the much hyped e39 Touring in 528 manual flavour.I was swayed by the low asking price and OMG manual gearbox. It was never felt as fast as I was expecting it to be ( partly the tall gearing) The air suspension died, the battery discharged itself randomly. It was way less spacious and less well designed as a carryall than say a w124 estate. Hillmanimp's xantia reminded me of it as it would refuse to let you out and I wanted shot of it ASAP. I offered it so cheaply on e bay even with all the problems in a long bullet pointed list my inbox almost exploded.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

911s have always dissapoing end me, I've not owned one but over the years driven a few and have been underwhelmed each time. Maybe if I tried a GT2 or an RS of some sort they'd be more like I'm expecting, otherwise they remind me of slightly more refined, faster Skodas- the rubbery gear change and the steering feel particularly.

My dissappointment with them has left me very much in the 'Never meet your heroes' camp. One of my brothers has an e34 M5 which I've resisted trying for 4 years now,because I don't want to be disappointed . Much the same when another brother had an Integrale a few years back, although he'd rolled it into a ball before I really had chance to try that.

[skattrd]

Saab 900.

I had posters of them on my bedroom wall and always wanted one, when I eventually got one I found the handling and driving position rather disappointing. I kept the thing for 2 years trying to like it, but I never did.

 

Citroën XM

To me it was a bit meh, it was ok, but nothing special. I expected floaty wafty ride, and it was fine, but nothing special. The Volvo S80 it replaced was more comfortable and a better car all round.

 

Triumph Spitfire

Offset pedals, I hate offset pedals. Is it too difficult to put the pedals directly in front of the driver?

[barefoot]

That bloody 306 I had yesterday.

To hear you lot banging on about them and n/a XUD's 

I thought it would be like driving....

 

...something a bit nicer/quicker/faster/better than it was.

[HillmanImp]

Toyota Celica mk5 (I think).

 

Borrowed Volksys and it was really cheaply put together. Drove okay when it could put the power down (maybe the tyres fault as much as the car) but sitting in it was just horrible.The noise from the road was terrible too. Compared to the Aldi Coupe that LankyTim has now which would probably have been a comparable car at the time, it was like a different world.

[Six-cylinder]

The Citroen AX GT.

 

When I first sold Citroens the AX GT was not out and I always wanted to drive one. While working for a Volvo dealer we took in a two year old AX GT, so I bagged it as my car for 2 days what a disappointment noisy, slow, flimsy build, resonance though choke knob and handling that did not give me confidence. Maybe I had spent too much time driving Peugeot 205 GTi s which were so much better.

 

This is the very car that did the that disappointed me. (the white is only a bit of frost)

 

[Billy SR]

owned a lupo sport, not for long, such a boring drive!

[stillOrange]

I'm new and I'm not sure if this will be taken as an act of heresy or something.

 

Recently had a chance of taking Corvette C5 for a coast to coast ride... It felt very meh. Power and sound is good but the rest was plasticy crap.

[John F]

1985 Lotus Excel: promised razor-sharp handling, but was just a bit too long & heavy to deliver it. Mine was a 50,000 mile FSH model too, so wasn't borked.

 

2013 Bentley Continental V8: dangerously light steering at speed, boring giffermatic transmission. Costs as much as a house to buy, but genuinely not as good as my £400 Calibra.

[HMC]

The first jag I bought; an xj40 2.9 sov. Quite a rare spec combo as it turns out, built for people who wanted all grace and space but no pace. That thing was painfully underpowered, the last thing someone expects when a jag wafts past. For a young lead footed lad who knew no better it was a let down not to be able to break traction from a standing start in the dry. All jags I've had since have never been the smallest engine option, and all have been much more satisfying buys.

[Essex V6]

I have to agree, they are that hyped up by the great unwashed, to be hairy knuckled cars that ate kittens for fun, when in reality they fail to be as lairy as a breathed over pinto. Quite disappointing really.

Only partly agree - reckon the early 4 speeds were much better. The 5 speed was good for motorway work though

[Bren]

Senator 2.5.

 

Nice looker, comfy interior, but slower than a week on remand, and did 20mpg.

 

Traffic light gp's? Forget it - a glacier has a better 0-60 time.

[Essex V6]

The Citroen AX GT.

 

When I first sold Citroens the AX GT was not out and I always wanted to drive one. While working for a Volvo dealer we took in a two year old AX GT, so I bagged it as my car for 2 days what a disappointment noisy, slow, flimsy build, resonance though choke knob and handling that did not give me confidence. Maybe I had spent too much time driving Peugeot 205 GTi s which were so much better.

 

This is the very car that did the that disappointed me. (the white is only a bit of frost)

 

Reckon that looks fantastic. Years ago, some persuaded my dad to chop in his Maestro for an AX GT. Loved that car - used to be able to spin the wheels in 3rd!

[fordperv]

Only partly agree - reckon the early 4 speeds were much better. The 5 speed was good for motorway work though

The 4 speed was better than the 5 speed i agree with that, the early check recaro were also better looking than the later shark grey. Years back I used to love embarrassing 2.8s in my pinto sierra

[Asimo]

Every Golf with more than 1300cc.

Every Golf after the Mk2.

[barefoot]

.... AX GT. Loved that car - used to be able to spin the wheels in 3rd!

 

Ah yes, the mark of a quality, well designed motor car.

[dugong]

Jaguar E-type 3.8 Roadster. 

Couldn't enjoy it as I was terrified of pranging the nose. If a car doesn't inspire confidence, I can't get on with it. 
Had to snigger at John F's £400 Calibra 'beating' a new Bentley, though - glorified VW or otherwise. 

I thought Autoshite was past inverted snobbery. 

[scruff]

Golf GTi Mk1. Was expecting some little cracker but not a patch on a 205.

Cit BX. Sorry I just don't get it!

Porker 911 SC, 1983. Fun but not as amazing nor quick as I thought it would be. A UR Quattro of the same age was spellbounding, not perfect by a long stretch, but to me it was fuckin' brilliant

[oldcars]

Mk4 golf, most reliable car to buy said my mates. Yep they were correct, reliably shite. Hated it, had issues, rotten sill, had a dog smell i could not get rid of, all brakelights stopped working becasue of a switch that took days to replace, had a dog smell i could not get rid of, failed mot on rust, had a dog smell i could not get rid of, was about as comfy as a razorblade,had a dog smell i could not get rid of, leaked oil, had a dog smell i could not get rid of. I could go on but you get the idea. 

[Negative Creep]

Ah yes, the mark of a quality, well designed motor car.

 

 

I loved my AX GT, so much fun to drive and largely avoided the Max Power brigade at the time. What I did not like was the Golf GTI mk2 (although I did get a complete lemon) and the E30 320, which just didn't feel special or premium, was thirsty without the performance and overall the Bluebird I bought to replace it was a much nicer car

[stripped fred]

An e30 BMW 325i touring. Very good condition, well made and reliable but it was so uncomfortable. You slid off the leather seats at the first hint of a corner and I used to get terrible backache after a short while. The engine needed to be revved to make good progress which then resulted in awful mpg. It also didn't handle particulalry well and felt quite agricultural even though the suspension was in good order. A nice car to have on the drive and admire but not nice to drive. I much preferred the £62 ZX 1.4 I replaced it with.

[stripped fred]

I loved my AX GT, so much fun to drive and largely avoided the Max Power brigade at the time. What I did not like was the Golf GTI mk2 (although I did get a complete lemon) and the E30 320, which just didn't feel special or premium, was thirsty without the performance and overall the Bluebird I bought to replace it was a much nicer car

Just read this and funny that you said the same about the e30 you had!

[stripped fred]

Just remembered a mk4 golf 1.6 my wife had. Had problems from day one and never felt right. Put me off VW's for a while...

[Pete-M]

Peugeot 604 STi.

 

Horrible power delivery, atrocious driving position. I liked the rest of it.

 

 

BMW 320d. The one after the E46.

 

Just nasty.

 

 

Citroën XM.

 

If that's a magic carpet ride then it's obviously a stair carpet.

 

 

MGB GT.

 

Looks gorgeous. Bloody horrible to drive.

[LabRat]

The wifes old vauxhall corsa "C" 1.4. Desperately needed a 6th gear, always failed the mot on the rear brakes and rear fog light, no matter what you did to them.

 

Vauxhall/GM bean counting didnt help- the brake switch fell apart every 6 months, leaving the brake lights on permanently- cheap plastic tat. Also the dashboard plug was installed with 5mm too little wire on the loom, so it would randomly kill all the dials off for fun. (Cured with superglue and cardboard!)

 

We cheered when it finally died as a result of a bus remodelling the back end. For a car sold on its fun to drive and easy to maintain qualities, it was urtter garbage!